TATTOOED
by Writing is Peace
Summary: Originally posted on Wattpad: Student athlete Jace Herondale get's attacked after leaving practice. He learns he has been engraved with a mark that supplies him with powers, and begins to fear the worst when he learns he's being hunted. Not-so ordinary student artist Clary Fray struggles with her own demons herself, and begins to get sucked into Jace's world, terrified.
1. BEING BURNED

**TATTOOED** **CHAPTER** **1**

"If you want to know what it's like to survive hell and still come out shining brighter than the sun, just look into the eyes of a woman who has survived intense damage and refused to allow it to destroy her softness."

JACE'S **POV**

 **MONDAY**

"Again Herondale!" Coach Hodge yells at me, throwing another football at me and I groan. He hates me, I swear. He claims he loves me, but I think it's because I'm one of his best players. I take off in a sprint, running straight through another teammate knocking him to the ground hard, and I bolt to the end zone, turning to look at coach.

"Happy?" I ask him, dropping the ball to the ground by my feet.

"Yes, but for that attitude Jace, I want five laps." He orders me and I huff, biting my tongue so I don't catch anymore laps and begin running, "everyone else inside." Coach yells.

Alec, my best friend, comes walking over to me, "I'll wait for you, hurry up." He tells me and I nod, breathing heavily. I can hear my heart beating in rhythm with my footsteps, and when I finally finish, I feel like dropping to my knees.

"Jace." Coach says to me; I thought he went inside, "yes sir." I respond

"You know you are like a son to me, and that's why I push you so hard." Coach Hodge says to me and I nod slowly. Where is he going with this?

"That being said, you need to step it up. You are talented, but you can do yards better." He claps me on the back, "step it up. And take a shower kid, you smell." He says and I smile at him, jogging off towards the school, grabbing the last of my things. I enter the dark locker room, looking around. It is empty and silent; Alec must have gone to the car.

I grab a towel and a change of clothes, locking my gear up in my locker. I go to the shower room, stripping it down, turning the water on as hot as possible, before stepping in and letting the steam swallow me. I just begin to get lost in thought when there is a loud bang and shatter-like sound that snaps me to attention. I turn off the shower, drying myself off and changing.

"Alec? Hello?" I yell out and I receive no respond.

"Alexander!" I yell out his full name, but I still get no response as I round the corner of the shower room, entering the main locker room. I need to flip the lights on.

"This isn't funny Alec, come—," I round another corner, trying to search through the black, as I get smacked in the chest by darkness. I stumble backwards over one of the benches onto the floor, crawling backwards so I am pressed against the cool metal of the lockers, breathing heavily.

I hear footsteps, but I cannot see anything. I go to rise back to my feet, just to get slammed back down to the tile. A hoodie figure comes down on my chest, using its knees to keep my arms down. I feel cool metal press against my bicep, and I begin to thrash, slamming my body into the lockers, but not knocking the figure loose.

I begin to feel a burning sensation, starting in my bicep and spreading through my entire body; I scream. I muster up as much strength as possible, throwing myself forward, using all my weight to throw my attacker off of me, and I jump to my feet.

I stagger for a moment, regaining my balance and leaning against the locker, "who are you?" I breathe heavily as it rises to its feet, looking at the hooded figure in front of me. It makes a growl-like noise as it's eyes meet mine. They're black.

"Who are you?" I roar, gripping at me bleeding bicep. It turns around, taking off in a sprint and launching itself out of the open locker room window, just as Alec walks in, looking at me.

"Are you ok?" He asks me and I shrug, shaking my head clear as Alec flicks the light on, and I pull my sleeve down. That had to be a dream.

"Uh, yeah, lets get out of here." I say, grabbing my backpack and following Alec out of the locker room, heading out to the parking lot, "are you sure that you ok?" He asks as we step onto our bikes.

"Yeah, let's just get out of here. I need to get home, I have a shit ton of homework." I say and he nods, starting his bike and speeding off. I take a deep breath, kick-starting my bike and racing off after him. I follow him through the small city streets, already buzzing with New York City parties, until we reach the suburbs. We reach our neighborhood, heading our separate ways down the street, heading towards my house.

I turn my bike off about 100 feet from my house so I don't wake Stephan and Mom. I walk the bike to my driveway, taking my bag and keys, and walking inside, attempting to be quiet, bee lining towards the stairs so I can reach my bedroom.

"You're late." Stephan says as my foot reaches the first stair.

"And you're drunk." I say back, beginning to walk up the stairs again.

"Look at me when you are being disrespectful, boy." Stephan says and I flinch, turning to face him. He strikes his hand across my face once, saying, "you will continue to learn the hard way. Go to bed." He orders me and I clench my fist and unclench them, turning around on my heels to head back up the stairs. I should have hit him back. I huff as I reach the bedroom, throwing my stuff on the bed, turning and punching the punching bag that hangs from my ceiling.

"Jace, honey." Mom says, opening my bedroom door and I stop punching, taking a deep breath and I look down at her. She purses her lips when she sees the look on my face.

"He only does it because he loves you." I dig my nails into the palms of my hand. I will control my temper better than Stephan does.

"If you are going to stand here and defend him, you need to get out." I tell her, "I didn't mean it—," I cut her off.

"Get out." I say dangerously and she nods, leaving my room, shutting the door. I turn on my light, looking in the mirror at the red mark on my face and I pull of my shirt, taking a look at my upper arm. It is blood and burned, as well as swelling beyond belief. I reach into my desk, pulling out bandages and gauze, wrapping it. I change into pajama pants, jumping into bed.

TUESDAY

I wake up in the morning covered in sweat. I spend the night dreaming of my attacker and Stephan. I jump out of bed; my clock reads 5am. Perfect. I get dressed in athletic clothes, packing my bags and climbing out the window. I slide down the roof, using the trees to jump myself to the ground. Having an abusive father has made me an expert at sneaking out.

I walk my bike down the street, starting it up, hopping on, and speeding off into the city. After about twenty minutes of driving, puling up to a stop, walking into my favorite diner. I go here almost every morning. I walk up the counter and waiting for a waitress to come help me.

"Hey, what can I get you?" A short girl with chestnut colored hair, who I haven't met yet, says, looking down at her notebook.

"Can I please get a black coffee and a plain bagel please?" I ask her and she looks up at me with a smile. Her smile quickly fades and her green eyes slowly narrow at me. Her eyes make her way to my bandage, which is just peaking out of the hem of my sleeve.

"Yes." I swear her eyes darken a few shades as she turns on her heels and walks off.

"Hey Kaelie!" I call to my blonde friend, who looks up from the counter with a smile on her face.

"What's up?"

"Who is the new girl?" I ask out of curiosity as I see her red hair bounce from behind the bar.

"Her name is Clary. She goes to the high school, really sweet, works hard, but is just a little weird, and super quiet." Kaelie gives me the rundown and I nod, "she didn't seem to like me very much."

"She probably was just shy because you are cute." She winks at me, walking off and getting back to work. Kaelie has been trying to get me into bed since we met, but now she has given up and just amuses me with her shameless flirting. The redhead, or Clary, I guess, returns, holding a paper bag and a large coffee, setting it down on the counter. Her eyes never leave me; they are set narrow, as if she is trying to kill me with her looks as I reach for my goodies. What is her problem?

"Keep the change." I tell her with a wink, handing her a twenty and her cheeks heat up, but her body language still reads ready to pounce.

"Have a good day." She says through gritted teeth, shoving my receipt at me and racing away from me without another word, rushing through the kitchen's double doors. I must have really pissed her off in my past life. I take my food, putting the bagel in my backpack and my coffee in a cup holder, hopping back on my bike and heading off towards school

 **End of Chapter**

 **AN: That's all! I hope you enjoyed chapter one. Your comments and votes are always appreciated. Please let me know what you think, and if you liked the chapter leave a star. Thanks!**


	2. THE CALM BEFORE THE STORM

**TATTOOED CHAPTER 2**

 **"Being Brave means to know something is scary, difficult, and dangerous, and doing it anyways, because the possibility of winning the fight is worth the change of losing it."**

 **-Emilie Autumn**

 **Jace's POV**

 **Tuesday**

I park my bike, walking around the school to the back football field, putting my stuff on the damp sidelines. I glance around, enjoying seeing the emptiness of the field, and downing my amazingly strong coffee.

I take a few minutes to stretch, before taking off down the cross-country path, staring down at my stopwatch. I push myself faster, and faster, thinking about last night, how I was attacked. And how I never want to be in that position again, to never feel that week again. As my feet pound harder and harder against the ground and my breathing becomes labored, my arm begins to burn, as if I am getting attacked all over again. I slam to a stop, reaching the football field, and stopping my watch.

I drop to my knees, pulling my bandage off and staring at the chards marks that have already began the healing process. In blotches, the wound is black, like a tattoo. It's cool to the touch and its no longer bleeding, while in other areas its still red and bleeding. What the hell is going on? I check my stopwatch, seeing that I shaves three minutes off my time. That's borderline impossible.

I stand up, starting my stopwatch again, talking off running. I push myself; the harder I run, the more my arm burns, the reed area turns black and black areas shine gold. Even though it hurts, I feel like energy is coursing through my veins, telling me to go faster, and giving me the extra burst I need to do so. I shave another minute off. I do this multiple more times until my mark is completely black and looks like a tattoo, and shines gold when I push myself. I go from running the course in twenty minutes, to running it in ten. Holy shit. I check my phone, and it says eight o'clock, which means I have an hour until school starts.

I enter school, dropping my bagel off in coaches room, before entering the locker room. I shower quickly, drying off and changing into black jeans and a white t-shirt, putting on my converse. I grab my backpack and exit the locker room, entering the buzzing hallway.

"Jace?" I hear from behind me to my left, and my teammate Sebastian comes over to me, clapping me on the shoulder, right above my wound, and I clench my jaw to keep from flinching.

"What's up?" I ask him and he laughs, "what's up, are you serious? Are you stupid or did you just forget that we have a football game tonight." Sebastian says to me and I sigh, shrugging, "I remember, my mind has just been somewhere else." I say and he nods, "get your head in the game Herondale."

 **Clary's POV**

I walk into first period, looking around nervously. It's only my second day here, and lets just say that my first day wasn't exactly the best.

"Hi, I'm Isabelle Lightwood." A tall girl steps in front of me, blocking my way as I head attempt to head to a desk. She has long black hair and dark piercing eyes, and she gives me a small smile.

"Uh, I'm Clary." I say, expecting the conversation to end there, but her smile grows, "hi Clary, come sit with my boyfriend, Simon, and I." She leads me over, pointing to a next to her and diagonally behind her nerdy-looking boyfriend, "I'm Simon." He seems like more of the person I would spend time with by choice.

"Hey." I say a little more cheerfully.

"Are you new here?" Isabelle asks and I nod, "well you must come with Simon and I to the football game tonight. Football is a huge thing here, and being a new girl, it'd be a great way for you to meet people and get used to the school." Isabelle is quite forward, but it's nice that she invited me. I sigh, pursing my lips.

"Erm," I say and she gives me puppy dog eyes, "please come! There are no other girls in our friend group and you seem really cool." That sounds like bullshit to me. She is drop dead gorgeous, I bet she has a lot of girls crawling to be her friend.

"Uh, sure." I say and she beams, "here is my phone, give me your number." I cautiously take her phone, entering my number and handing it back to her.

"Alright, whose ready to learn chemistry? I'm coach Hodge, but you can address me as Coach." Coach says, just as the classroom door swings open, two guys walk in, "Jace, Alec, nice of you to join us. Take a seat." Coach points in our general direction.

I recognize the blonde guy from this morning at the diner. I clench my fist as he comes walking by me, following by his friend. Blonde boy sits directly behind me, while the boy with black hair sits next to Isabelle. The hairs on the back of my neck stand up, and I chew on the inside of my lower lip. He's dangerous. I can sense it, "hey Iz." Blonde boy, or Jace I assume, says, and Isabelle waves quietly to him.

"Hey Jace, and hey Alec." She addresses the black hairs boy with blue eyes. They are definitely related.

"Hey diner girl." Jace says to me and I turn around to look at him. My eyes jet to his bicep. He has been marked.

"Hello?" He says again and I whirl back around in my chair, looking back at Coach, "did I do something to you?" He asks loudly, but I ignore him.

"Jace!" Coach yells pit and Jace's eyes get peeled away from me, and his head snaps up, "shut up!"

"Sorry Coach." I feel Jace staring at me, causing all of my senses to bounce off the walls.

As soon as class is over, I race out as soon as possible, ignoring as Isabelle calls to me. I don't know why I sense so much danger from him, but I am afraid of him. He has to have a mark. That's the only thing that would make sense. But, I have never met another person with a mark.

I make my way to my next class, and than to lunch, I enter the café, planning to sit by myself, but I feel somebody latch onto my arm, causing panic to rise in my chest. I jump, ripping my arm from the persons grasp, I whirl around to see a stumbling Isabelle.

"Damn girl, you're strong." She says and I let out a nervous chuckle, "you have no idea." I say under my breath, "we are sitting outside, come on." She says, leading me out the back double door, which brings us to the courtyard. I spot Jace, Alec, Simon and two boys I don't know sitting on a table underneath a tree. Jace and I lock eyes, causing my hairs to stand up again, and I crunch my nose in disgust.

"Do you guys know each other?" Alec asks Jace as Isabelle and I walk over; I continue to watch Jace with a watchful eye.

"No. She serves me this morning at Taki's." Jace says, and Isabelle elbows me, bringing my attention away from glaring at Jace.

"Oh, what's your name?" Alec asks me as Isabelle sits me down next to her on a bench. I sit across from a guy with jet-black hair and black eyes.

"Clary." I say and the guy in front of me extends his hand to me, "I'm Sebastian." I shake it, feeling his pulse. Is he nervous? He shouldn't be. Does he know what I am? I may need to keep him from squealing.

"Ok, well I'm Alec." He says, pointing at himself, "and obviously you know Jace, Izzy, and Simon," he points at Sebastian, "now you know Seb," and he points to a sparkly boy with green eyes with silver eyeliner, "this is Magnus. My boyfriend."

"Hi." I say quietly, pulling out an apple.

"Are you new here?" Sebastian asks me and I nod, "yeah. I went to a private school in New York, but before I moved here, I loved in Virginia." I tell Sebastian, but everyone seems to be listening. I've practiced this cover story many times. I knew that eventually they would ask questions about where I came from.

The part about moving from Virginia was true, but the private school portion was utter bullshit. I was at a Psych Ward because my mom was, "going to get me the best help." She finally thought my screws were tight enough to send me back to school.

"Do you like it here?" Simon asks me and I shrug.

"I've been here for two days. There is still a lot to learn, and a lot to hate." I shoot Jace a covert side eye.

"You're friends with Kaelie, right?" Jace says and I narrow my eyes at him.

"Not really." I respond, not looking at him, and he shrugs.

"I was talking to her about you this morning and it just seemed like you two were friends." He says and I tense slightly at the sound of his voice.

"Why were you talking about me?" My defenses flair, my veins running hot.

"Easy killer. I just asked if you were new, and told her that you didn't seem to like me." He says, and before I can tell him that he's right, Sebastian cuts in, "thank God she didn't kiss the ground you walk on. It's not impossible for somebody not to like you." Everyone snickers but Jace and I, the two of us stare cautiously at each other.

 **Jace's POV**

There is something about Clary that keeps pulling me towards her, even though we can all tell that Clary definitely doesn't feel the same way about me.

"Whatever Sebastian." I roll my eyes, snapping out of whatever trance Clary put me in, but she is still staring. I feel my arm start to burn and I hiss. Why now? What is going on? I place my hand over the mark, trying to calm it down, but it burns my hand, making me jump to my feel. I shake both my hand and my arm, trying to calm the burning sensation.

I see Clary's eyes flicker and clench her fist. I let out a groan when I notice everyone's eyes on me. I rock back and forth on my toes, "I'll be right back." I declare, running off towards the locker room. The pain is getting to be too much, worse then it was when I was running this morning. Something is seriously wrong with me. I let out a large yell, turning around and punching a wall, watching the hole form around my fist. Holy hell.

"Jace?" I here Alec call out and I clench my fist as he walks into the locker room, coming towards me, "are you ok?"

"No!" I yell out, dripping to my knees, gripping at my arm, scratching and tugging at my shirt.

"What's wrong?" He asks, pulling my sleeve of my shirt, showing himself my glowing mark.

"What the hell?" He drops down next to me, putting a hand on my arm, burning both him and I.

I stand back up, breathing heavy and pressing my head to the cool metal of the locker, making the burn slowly fade away.

"Talk to me." He says, putting a hand on my shoulder, attempting to bring my attention back to the real world.

"You can't tell anybody." I tell him and he nods, "swear Alec. It's going to sound crazy but you need to trust me." I say.

"I swear." He tells me.

"Someone attacked me last night. When you asked me if everything was ok, I lied. This masked freaked broke in and burned me, giving me this fucking mark that burns me. I have been stronger and fast just since yesterday. I ran the cross-country course in ten minutes, which should be impossible. When I push myself, I burn, and when I'm around Clary, I burn stronger other times. I don't know what's happening, but I'm scared." I explain to him and I watch his face carefully.

"I believe you, and I know that you're scared. I promise we will get to the bottom of this. We need to talk to Clary." Alec says and I nod.

"We need to get to the bottom of this girl."

 **End of Chapter**


	3. PANIC ON THE TWENTY YARD LINE

AN: I genuinely didnt believe this fanfic would do as well as it has in its first few hours. Please, if you don't mind, drip a review, as they mean the world to me, and encourage me to continue writing.

 **TATTOOED CHAPTER 3**

 _ **"I rarely open up. I don't like to feel vulnerable or be misunderstood. But now and then I get talking to somebody and something about them resonates with me—whether total stranger or old friend, in their presence, I feel a certain safety, a rare calm, and everything comes gushing out."**_

 _ **\- Beau Taplin**_

 **TUESDAY**

 **Clary's POV**

We enter the already packed stadium. Isabelle and Simon weave me in and out of the packed stairs, bringing me up to their reserved spot, meeting up with Magnus. He turns around with a smile, excusing himself from the conversation he was previously engaging in.

"Hey guys!" He exclaims excitedly as we sit down next to him.

"Hey." I respond, looking around; my senses are on overload. I can smell beer, smoke, and sweat, my ears are screaming at all the different conversations, and I feel my heart slamming against my ribcage. I take some deep breaths, counting backwards from ten like my therapist taught me, calming my pounding pulse, and I hone in on the slight burning happening on my collarbone, giving myself some sense.

"The game is staring!" Isabelle exclaims, grabbing onto my arm and shaking me as the ball gets kicked.

I really don't care about football, but since we are hardly friends, I feel like I should be here. Plus, it gives me a great opportunity to see Jace's control over himself. I need to make sure he will not be a danger to me. I watch him carefully.

He runs down the field, "has he gotten faster?" Isabelle asks out loud as Jace plows down through a player, taking the guy straight to the ground. He is strong and fast; maybe too strong and fast.

"For sure." Magnus says and it takes three opposing team players to take Jace down, before they climb off of him. Jace doesn't stand up right away, and I look over at Isabelle to see if she is worried.

"Hm." Simon says, "he's glowing." He sounds so nonchalant, and my head snaps up, to look at Jace, her upper arm is glowing in the shape of an angelic mark through his shirt. He's curling up into a ball, and groaning in pain. This idiot needs to cover up before he gets himself killed.

As if he heard me, he flips his bod so his arm is down facing the ground and he is no longer visibly glowing.

"I need to get out of here." I mumble under my breath, turning as quick as possible. I don't need Isabelle noticing that I'm ditching and asking what's wrong with me. I weave out of the stadium, running down the stairs, searching for an exit.

 **Jace's POV**

"Jace, get up." Alec says, pocking me with his foot and bending down next to me, but I can't.

"Jace, coach is coming, get up." He shakes me hard and with that my head snaps up and I come into my senses. "Okay, okay." I say and Alec helps me to m feet. I shake my head clear, jumping up and down a few times and shaking my hands. I swear Clary yelled something to me.

"Herondale, you good?" Hodge yells to me and I give him thumbs up. Coach turns to the ref, signaling the start of the game.

"I thought Clary was here." I say as we return to our friends after the game, giving Isabelle a fist bump.

"Hello to you too. Good game by the way. She left after you had your little injury episode. Are you ok?" She says and I shrug.

"Yeah." I lie, "I just landed a little funny. Uh I got to go home, I don't want to piss my dad off. I'll see you guys tomorrow, have fun at your after party." I say, not giving anyone the opportunity to say anything in return, running off towards my bike, grabbing my bag and hearing my name get called. I hope on my bike, ignoring everyone, racing off, getting pulled somewhere that I don't know. I reach the deep city, looking around in awe, I haven't been here at this time before. I have no idea where I am, and when I finally arrive at my unknown destination, I tilt my head in confusion. It's a closed art studio. I feel the need to enter. This is such a bad idea.

I park my bike, walking up to the door and jiggling it, making the handle snap completely. Shit. I open the door, trying to enter quietly, but every step squeaks.

"Hello?" I yell out and I get smacked over the head with something from behind, feeling the wood splinter in my back from behind, and a little bit of blood drip down my forehead. "Fuck." I hiss, stumbling forward and whirling around, I see a confused Clary standing with whatever is left of the chair she beat me with, "Jace?"

"What the hell?" She yells at me, and I yell back at her, "you broke a chair over my head," I yell, "you broke into my house!" She yells back.

"How are you that strong?"

"The same reason you are. How did you find my house" She responds, rolling up her sleeve and showing me her mark, which matches mine.

"What the hell? You did this to me?" I accuse her, my temper flaring and I clench my fists. I reach out to her, grabbing her arm and I feel her whole body tense, she drops her voice.

"Let go of me right now, or I'll kill you." She says and I drop her arm, backing up a step.

"Ok."

 **Clary's POV**

"Come with me upstairs. I can explain everything that I know. And I swear to you, it wasn't me who marked you." I tell Jace and I watch him exhale heavily, he nods. I make him walk in front of me, and he checks back at me every now and again, making sure that I'm not planning on smacking him over the head again.

"Go right." I order him as he reaches the bend of the hallway, entering my bedroom, double-checking with me first, making sure it was ok first.

"What do you know so far?" I question him, sitting down on my desk across from him, as he stands in the corner of the room with his arms crossed. I keep a safe distance between us. I still don't trust him, at all. He's lucky I even let him in my house, I probably should have killed him.

"A freak in a hoodie tackled me with a pen, burned a mark into my skin that shines gold when my adrenaline starts pumping, and whenever I'm around you, it seems to intensify." He says, pausing, "and I think you know what's going on." His mark shining, and I hear his hear begin to beat faster. He's either lying, passionate, or upset. Maybe he's all there.

"The mark on your arm is called a rune, and the pen that you were burned with is called a steele. The rune you have is a religious mark, called an Angelic rune, or the mark of an angel." I say and he crosses his arms, "The per- no, that thing that marked me, was no angel."

"The angel doesn't mark you, but the rune is a mark, that in religious texts, says that you gain supernatural strength, stamina, and stealth from whatever angel the rune links you too. I don't know why you, or I, were runed, nor do I know who did it."

I lift up my shirt, showing him a rune that I gave myself, "this one gives me the ability to sense feelings and emotions through enhanced hearing."

"You have more than one rune?" Jace asks me and I nod, "I was first runed when I was fourteen, three years ago. When he marked me, he called me 'the creator'. I didn't know what that mean until a year later I woke up with a steele in my and two new runes." I explain and he crosses his arms, listening carefully, "why did I come here?" He asks me. It's like for every question of his I answer, he has another one to ask me.

"I have no idea, but what I do know is that you need to control your rune. We are being hunted, and you getting caught will not only get you and I killed, it will probably get you and the others hurt." I warn him, and I watch his entire body language change.

"I need to go." Jace says out of nowhere, turning out my door, and I hear him pound down the hallway at a jog, trying to exit my house as fast as possible.

"Jace?" I call to him and he stops, looking at me from the bottom of the stairs. I can hear his elevated heart rate, but I can't read his face.

"When I told my mother about what happened, she though I was losing my mind. She sent me away to psych ward. If I were you, I'd keep your mouth shit." I leave him with one final word of advice before he runs out of my house, speeding off on his bike.

 **End of Chapter**


	4. VOICES IN MY HEAD

**TATTOOED CHAPTER 4**

 _ **I may have trust issues, but some people seem to have an issue with the responsibility of being trusted**_ **."** ― _**Melchor Lim**_

 **WEDNESDAY**

 **Jace's POV**

I left my house a little early, heading down the dark street, down towards Taki's, and walking down towards the diner.

I enter the ghostly empty diner and seeing Clary behind the counter, reading a book and taking notes, and Kaelie off in the far side of the restaurant, talking quietly with the only costumer in the restaurant. I walk up quietly to the counter, "did somebody forget to do their homework?" I say lowly next to Clary, attempting to scare her, but she doesn't even flinch, she probably heard me down the street, "actually no Jace," she doesn't even pause, continuing to write, "I'm doing some research about why you are so drawn to me." She says, removing the books from her stand, and tucking them away, "and I did hear you down the street." She says, and I jump back, my brows raised. It takes her a moment to realize that I didn't say my down the street comment out loud, and she begins to stutter.

"Um," she clears her throat, "you're here really early." She quickly changes the subject and I respond with a shrug, "yeah, I wanted to get out of my house as soon as possible, do you mind getting me the same thing as yesterday?" I ask her and she nods, disappearing for a moment.

"Are you guys friends now?" Kaelie asks me, walking over and I shrug, "she's friends with Isabelle."

"Oh," she pauses, reaching for my arm, pulling up my sleeve a little bit, "did you get a tattoo?" She asks as Clary comes into the room.

"Uh yeah." I say as she flips my arm so she can look at it, and she tilts her head in confusion, "what is it?"

"It means strength." I say, pulling my arm from her grasp.

"Thank you Clary." I take my coffee and hand her a twenty, "keep the change." I wink at her like I did yesterday.

I grab my bagel, heading outside, making my way to my bike. I feel as if the air is cooler and the sky is darker, and my heart begins to race. My arm blows like a fuse, burning racking up my arm, and I freeze. Someone has to be following me. I take a deep breath, walking quickly, glancing over my shoulder. What I see makes me skid to a stop. I turn around, facing my stalker head on, as they head towards me.

"Stop!" I say loudly, but they don't. The tall figure continues to stalk towards me, so I huff, gripping the bag tightly in my hand, and start walking quickly towards the figure.

"Stupid boy." The figure clocked in a black hoodie with a hidden face says to me. This has to be the same guy that marked me originally. It is my only shot of some decent answers.

"Who are you?" I say, but it doesn't respond, it just pulls out a long blade from underneath his shirt, whispering something under his breath, making the blade glow. Yep, this was a bad idea. I wind up, throwing my coffee as hard as possible, smacking the figure in the face, making burning hot liquid drip everywhere. It screens in pain, so I hightail it down the street, reaching my motorcycle, and hopping on. I kick star it, racing down the street as fast as possible like a bat out of hell.

Clary's POV

"We need to talk." Jace says to me and I turn around to look at him, "lunch is in three minutes, can you wait a couple minutes?" The bell releasing us to lunch rings out and the entire class jumps up to their feet. I lead him out the back double doors and into the courtyard, making sure that we are out of earshot from everyone.

"I had to throw a coffee at someone this morning." He says and I roll my eyes, crossing my arms, preparing to walk away.

"And why do I care?" I respond, turning around, beginning to walk off, but he catches me by the arm, stopping me. I should punch him in the face. He flinches at the thought, letting go of me, "sorry. I need to do some research on the whole 'hearing each others thoughts' thing.

"I think it was the same thing who runed me in the first place. I threw coffee hitting him in the face, and took off running like a bat out of hell." He tells me and I can't help but snort at the image of him throwing his coffee at someone and running like a chicken with its head cut off.

"Not funny." He says, which makes me double over, sending me over the edge, and I bust out laughing. Eventually he joins in, making my laugh become uncontrollable.

"Ok, maybe it's just a little funny." He says as I sober up.

"I've yet to see you laugh." He says, looking down at me with a small smile, and I shrug.

"The mental hospital will do that to you." I say, my face going hard as his smile falls from his face. I really need to learn some personal boundaries, but I don't really have a sense of what isn't appropriate to say, and what isn't.

"What happened?" HE asks me and I cross my arms, shivering, even though it's late September and 70 degrees.

"It doesn't matter. I'm hungry." I say, walking off away from him, but he follows, quickly catching up to me with his long stride. We make our way back to his friends and sit down in our usual spots, "hey." Sebastian says to me as I sit down across from him.

"Hi." I respond, pulling out a small back of snacks.

"I missed you at the party last night." He says to me and I shrug, "it was ok that you weren't there." Sebastian says to Jace, who flips him the bird. Are these to friends or not?

"Sorry, I had other plans." Jace says and Sebastian rolls his eyes.

"Doing what?" Isabelle asks him, interrogating him.

"Uh, I was at Clary's." He says and everyone turns to me.

"We had a project." I lie and Magnus chuckles.

"Babe, it's only the third day of school." Magnus says and Isabelle adds on, "what kind of teacher assigns work on the third day?"

"Uh," I stutter, my wheels start to turn so I announce the first thing that comes to mind, "anatomy."

"I bet you were studying anatomy." Magnus says with a wink and Jace rolls his eyes, while everyone else breaks out laughing. I don't get it.

"Out of every class, you had to choose anatomy." Jace hisses at me and I shrug, "why is it—," I cut myself off, realization sets in.

"Wait!" I yell and everyone shuts up, "we didn't have sex." I say and Isabelle snorts.

"We know Clary. We are just messing with you." Isabelle says and I force a smile.

"Anyways, there is another game, and afterwards we are having a party at Alec and I's house. All of you have to come, no exceptions." Isabelle shoots me the side eye.

"Maybe." I tell her and she huffs, pointing her phone threateningly at me.

"Missy, you already skipped out on the last party to hang out with Jace for God knows what, you cannot miss this one." She exclaims and Jace slings his arm around me, "I'll make sure she comes." He says and I drop my voice to a low, dangerous tone, "get off me before you loose an arm." I say, looking up at him, making my eyes flicker, and he jumps backwards, flinching, not saying another word. Good. I'm glad he is fearful of me. He should be.

"I'll try my best." I say and she nods, smiling proudly that she believes she's convinced me, but I have other motives.

 **End of Chapter**


	5. LIFE OF THE PARTY

**TATTOOED CHAPTER 5**

 _ **"It is a curious thing, the death of a loved one. We all know that our time in this world is limited, and that eventually all of us will end up underneath some sheet, never to wake up. And yet it is always a surprise when it happens to someone we know. It is like walking up the stairs to your bedroom in the dark, and thinking there is one more stair than there is. Your foot falls down, through the air, and there is a sickly moment of dark surprise as you try and readjust the way you thought of things."**_

― _**Lemony Snicket,**_

 **FRIDAY**

 **Clary's POV**

"You can't wear that." Isabelle says, looking my boring jeans and my old t-shirt as he digs through her closet.

"Well I'm not going all the way home just to change and come back." I tell her and she gives me a knowing look, smiling, "I got this." She digs in her closet for a minute, before throwing a mini skirt and a pink top. I look at it up and down before pursing my lips.

"I'll wear it on one condition." I tell her and she nods, "I need you to loan me some concealer and don't ask why." I say and she laughs, rolling her eyes, open her draw and throwing me a light colored cream and I duck into her bathroom, locking the door. I change quickly, covering up my visible runes, leaving the one that that wraps up my leg. I am only leaving it because it looks like a vine crawling up my leg, not a deflect rune.

"Okay." I say, coming out of her bathroom, tossing her concealer back at her with a smile, and her jaw drops.

"Oh boy, I'm going to be fighting boys off of you tonight. Give me a twirl." She cheers and I laugh, doing as she wishes.

It may have taken me a week, but I am finally starting to get slightly confortable with everyone. Maybe not Jace; I still get a strange vibe from him. I don't love that he just showed up at my house without knowing where I lived, and that I was able to break a chair over his head and he hardly flinched. That scares me.

"Earth to Clary." Isabelle says and my eyes flick up to look at her.

"You can totally stay here tonight, if you get drunk or not." She tells me and I give her a thumbs up.

"Thanks, I won't get drunk, but I probably shouldn't go home tipsy." I say as the doorbell rings, and I look at Isabelle.

"It's probably Jace. I need to get dressed, can you let him in?" She asks me and I nod, leaving her room and bouncing down the stairs. I reach the front door, opening it slightly to see Jace, who has a large group of people behind him, and he looks extremely stressed.

"Hey Clary, can you do me a favor and tell Alec to lock the door and start the music so I—," he gets bumped from behind, "get off asshole." Jace says, turning back to me with a forced smile "can let these assholes in." He finishes his sentence and I nod, turning around and keeping the door slightly open, and yelling, "Alec!"

"What!" He yells back.

"Jace says 'lock the door and start the music'." I tell him, "ok!" he calls back." I turn back to Jace.

"I could have done that." He rolls his eyes at me and I snicker.

"You're welcome." I respond to him as the music begins to blasting, causing people outside to cheer. Jace steps into the house, moving me out of the way and opening the door wide so people can come into the house, "where are your...um...tattoo's." He says, stepping in front of me and looking at me up and down, raising his brow at me. He is so checking me out, weirdo.

"Makeup is a wonderful thing." I tell him, making me chuckle, and I walk out from under his arm, going up the stairs, making my way up towards Isabelle's room, just as she comes down towards the party.

"Hey girly." Isabelle says to me as people continue to flood into the house, "damn, you let this many people come?" I ask and she shrugs, "it's an open. I shut the door in about an hour, and people can't come in once the door is shut." she says and I nod, "ok."

"You said you had a plan." Jace says as Isabelle walks off, coming over and blocking my path so I can't walk off. I shrug, "don't worry about it, just have fun." Yes, I am keeping Jace in the dark, but it's for a good reason. He's bait. I know that the chances of him hooking up with someone are very high. I'm hoping his horniness will lead me to some answers.

"Clary." Sebastian says with a smile, coming over to me, handing me a drink, taking a swig of his.

"Hey." I say, glancing down at the drink in my hand. I won't be drinking this. I didn't see him pour it, and I don't trust him.

"Dance with me." He winks at me and I nod. He goes to link arms with mine, but I brush him off, just walking towards the dance floor, not letting him touch me, leaving Jace behind.

We dance to the fast paced music, but I make sure to keep some distance between us. I watch his hand carefully, trying to find a good time that I can switch our drinks up.

Every now and again, he makes a small move, and will try to close the gap between us, and very now and again, he tries to encourage me to drink some of the beer he handed me.

It takes me a few minutes, but I eventually successfully switch Sebastian's and my cups. I watch him continue to down the drink, and I can finally see if he spiked it.

I watch him deplete as we dance a little more. He's only had a few swigs of my drink, but he definitely looks like he is about to pass out. He was totally trying to drug me. He's such a bastard.

"Bye." I say to him as he reaches out to me one more time for me, stumbling forward, "you bitch, what did you do to me?"

"What you were planning on doing to me." I give him the finger, turning on my heels, heading to the cooler. I need a drink after that encounter. I pull out a sealed beer.

"Clary." Jace says, coming over to me, "you smell like beer." I say as he leans towards me.

"You don't, why aren't your drinking?" He says and I sigh, shaking the beer bottle at him.

"I am." I say and he titles his head at me. He's so tipsy.

"Look at you, Ms. Tough Warrior Princess is having a little fun." He says and I roll my eyes at him, "go find someone to hook up with." I say and he smile, "I'm trying." He says and I notice Kaelie standing by the pool, talking to a friend but eyeing Jace.

"Go to Kaelie. I'm sure she'd be down." I push him lightly towards her and he shrugs.

"Okay." He winks at me, walking away from me and over to Kaelie, giving me a thumbs up from behind his head. Idiot.

I go to walk back towards the inside area of the dance floor. Isabelle comes running to me, "hey have you seen Sebastian? I heard you were dancing with him." She wiggles her brows at me and I shrug.

"We got bored with each other. I'm sure he's fine." He's lucky I didn't kill him.

"Come dance!" he says and I go to decline, but she doesn't give me the opportunity, grabbing me by the arm, and dragging me off with her.

"Are you and Jace a thing?" She asks me over the loud music and I laugh, "hell no." I down the rest of my beer.

"Good, that means we can set you up with a guy."

Isabelle failed to get me a guy, Jace failed to take a girl to bed, and I failed to expand my investigation. It is almost two in the morning and we are all going around and picking up trash, everyone has sobered up.

"Are you staying tonight?" Alec asks Jace as he fixes the couch cushion, "If I walk in this late, my dad may kill me." Jace smiles weakly, leaning forward on his hands, "Clary and Jace, you two get to fight over your preferred side of the 'L' couch." Isabelle says, faking excitement and I make eye contact with Jace, who winks at me, "I hope you like to cuddle." He teases me and I snort, swallowing a laugh, "only if you want to lose an arm." I question him, letting out a yawn and he smirks, I throw my big trash bag into a trashcan.

"Huh," Simon says, opening a door, "I found Sebastian." He says, peering into the bathroom, "let's just leave him, maybe waking up in the bathroom will teach him not to get shitfaced at a party." Isabelle says and Simon shrugs, stepping out of the way and shutting the door. Maybe I should tell them what he was planning on doing? No, that would be a bad idea.

"Isabelle, do you mind if I shower?" I say and she nods, "yeah, your bag is in my bedroom, you can use my bedroom." She tells me and I nod, running up the stairs, heading towards her bedroom. I grab my bag, jumping into her bathroom and moving into the shower. I scrub the foundation off my body and wash my hair. I don't really care about any of them seeing my runes. I could take all of them if they end up being douche bags.

I finish, turning off Isabelle's shower, and drying off. I change into a tank tip and athletic shorts, hanging the towel up on the door.

"Clary!" I hear from downstairs and I tie my hair up as I run down the stairs towards the living room, "coming!" I say as I skid into the living room. Isabelle opens her mouth to say something, but she quickly shuts it as she looks me up and down; I notice the boys staring as well.

"You have a lot of tattoos." Isabelle says and I smile, "thanks."

"You've gotten all of those since you were sixteen?" Simon asks me and I nod, "I, uh, have really chill parent, my mom has tattoos, "that's a lie, "so she doesn't really care about them," that's also another lie. She knows I have a few runes, but she doesn't know how many I have.

"Ok, well, we are going to bed." Isabelle winks at me; grabbing Simon by the hand and pulling him out of the living room towards her room. Alec throws me two blankets and hands Jace two pillows as he sits down on the large couch, "are you guys ok for tonight?" Alec asks me and I nod, "if you need anything Jace will be able to help you." Alec says and I flash a small smile at him.

"Thanks Alec, goodnight guys." I say to both Alec and Magnus. They both tell me goodnight, heading up the stairs, hand in hand, and once the boys are out of sight, I pull my steele out of my over night bag. I run it over my calming rune, activating it. This is the only way I sleep at night.

"So that's how it's supposed to work." Jace says, coming over to me and sitting down next to me, looking down at his hands, "why don't I need a, uh, steele." He questions and I nod, telling him to continue, "to activate my, uh, runes."

"I have no idea." I'm honest with him and his face falls, nodding, "Ok. What does the run that you just activated do?" He asks me, reaching out to touch it, and he jerks away.

"Calmness. I have really bad nightmares and struggle to sleep, but this rune helps." I say and Jace leans back against the couch, hissing and jumping forward, "what'd you do?" I ask and he shrugs in response, "when you broke the chair over my back, you got a ton of splinters stuck in it. I had to pull them out so my back is really raw." He says and I purse my lips before saying, "I can give you a healing rune." I say quietly and I watch his wheels begin to turn.

"Can you put it somewhere someone wont see?" He asks me and I crack a smile, "I'm not putting it on your ass if that's what you're asking." I say and Jace snickers, "was that a joke Ms. Fray." He says and I smile.

"Yes, but yeah, I need to put it close to your back." I say and he nods, "ok." He pulls his shirt up a little, making his V stand out and my face flushes.

"Do I make you nervous Clary?" He asks and I roll my eyes, looking him dead in his, "no, where am I putting it?" I ask and he grimaces, "on my hip." He says and I nod.

"You're not going to like this." I tell him honestly, putting my hand over his mouth and touch the steele to him, heating up his skin, and burning him with a heeling rune. He moans and groan in pain against my hand, and I almost feel bad for him. I finish, pulling away from him as fast as possible.

He lets out a sigh of relief, leaning back against the couch and pulling his shirt down, "thank you." He says and I nod, "you'll get used to the pain, and than you'll learn how to control them." I say and he nods.

"I hope." He says, laying down, putting his feet behind me. I stand up, walking to the other end of the couch, putting my feet behind Jace's head. I feel him begin to trace his hand around my rune that wraps up my leg like a vine. I give him a few minutes, but it gets annoying and I kick at him, "stop it."

"That one is cool." He tells me, continuing to race so I kick at him again, making contact and causing him to groan.

"Stop touching me." I say and for once, he listens. He falls silence and I huff, "goodnight Jace." I say quietly and he mumbles a goodnight back, pulling my blanket on top of me.


	6. THE TRUTH WILL SET YOU FREE

**TATTOO CHAPTER 6**

 _ **Sometimes we hurt the ones we love, but hurting ourselves to avoid it doesn't make it better.**_

 _ **-Shannon A. Thompson**_

 **SATURDAY**

 **JACE'S POV**

I wake up before everybody else, and I look over at Clary, seeing her relaxed for the first time ever. She is peacefully resting, her body pulled up into each other in a ball. I slip off the couch quietly, trying not to wake her up. I collect my stuff, exciting the Lightwood house, hopping on my bike. I head as quickly and quietly down the empty road to my house. I park my bike up in my driveway and heading up to the front door, opening it slowly. Stephan is asleep in front of the TV with a bottle in his hand and I inhale deeply. I try to slip passed him undetected, but the minute I hit the stairs, it creaks and I hear my dad groan, "Jonathan!" He groans, standing up from the couch and I freeze, every muscle in my body tensing up as Stephan makes his way over to me.

"You're late again." He says, breaking the bottle on the stair railing, and pointing it at me. I could take him, couldn't I?

"No." I say, swallowing my fear of him, "and I'm not afraid of you." I say, clenching my fist and he laughs, swiping me across the jaw with the bottle, making my head snap to the side in pain.

"Prove it kid." He teases me, so I do. I hit him as hard as I can, making him fall off the stairs and he doesn't stand up. I must have knocked him out cold. Nice.

I make the decision to leave, I don't want to deal with my dad when he wakes up, or my mom when she finds out that I actually stood up for myself. I step over Stephan, walking out of 'my' house, and go back to the Lightwood's. I am going to have a lot of explaining to do if someone is awake when I get back.

When I arrive back at the Lightwood home, I enter the house quietly, tip-toeing my way back into the living room, where Clary is running herself, "it's just a calming rune, I'm not planning on killing anyone." She says and I nod, walking over and siting down heavily next to her.

"You look like you need a calming rune, what the hell happened to your face?" She asks quietly, and she reaches out, brushing her fingers over my small cut and I flinch away from her hand.

"What happened? Did you get jumped again?" She asks me and I huff, rolling my eyes at her tone. Does she even care?

"Are we friends, I can never tell with you?" I say and she sighs.

"Uh yeah, I think. Can I explain something to you?" She asks and I nod, taking a deep breath.

"When I was 14, I had my life ripped away fro me. I didn't trust anyone, not even my mom. When I told her, she sent me away to psych home for nut jobs. I still can't bring myself to talk about what they did to me. I don't want for you to have to go through what I did. I want to help you, and I want to trust you. I just don't know how to bring myself to do so." I nod, "I understand." I respond.

"Now, tell me what happened to your face?" She demands, and I clench my fist. This may help her feel like she can trust me.

"My dad hit me with a bottle because he was dunk." I say and Clary purses her lips. She doesn't need to know the extremity of the situation. She once again, reaches out and calmly brushes her fingers over my face.

"Does it hurt?" She asks and I shrug, "kinda."

"Activate your healing rune." She orders me, crossing her eyes and watching me, expecting me to be able to, "I don't know how." I let out a loud breath.

"I have an idea." She says, pursing her lips, before advancing towards me, climbing into my lap, "erm, Clary, uh, what are you doing?" I questions her, and she glares at me, "you're not special." she say, rolling her eyes, "don't flatter yourself." She digs her sharp nails into my prominent cheekbones.

"My goal is to hurt you." She warns, applying more pressure to my cut, "charming, why are you sitting on me?" Clary says, and she dig my knee into my gut, "oh, Ow!" I say, and she continues to apply pressure, causing more pain.

My healing rune on my hip lights a bright shade of gold, running a course through my body. Relief brushes through me, the pain dulling.

"Whatever you did, it worked." I tell Clary, who nods, climbing off of me.

"I did some reading up, since I don't have a clue what is going on. The books said that in order for people to activate their runes without a steele, they either need a huge wave of emotion to hit them, or they need to pass their pain threshold. Either way, it isn't supposed to happen. You shouldn't be able to do what you can do." I nod, listening to what she is saying. She huffs, flopping back, lying back against the couch cushions, "so I, um, I'm-so sorry for, um, smashing a chair on you." She stutters and I crack a smile, "that seems very hard for you, thank you." I tease her and she rolls her eyes, "I'm making an effort to understand peoples emotions more." Sometimes I wonder if she's a sociopath.

"I'm not, I'm a psychopath." She says and my eyes go wide, letting out a groan, "I didn't say that out loud.

CLARY'S POV

"We really need to talk about—," Jace cuts me off with another groan, burying his face in the couch, "don't say it. I don't want to feel completely crazy yet." He says and I purse my lips once again.

"Fine." I cave. There is a few minutes of silence between the two of us, before a loud groan comes from the bathroom. Looks like the douche bag is awake.

"You're right, he is a douche." Jace says, before he sighs, "damn it." He grunts.

"You're really bad at sweeping things under the rug." I say and Jace sighs, "why did you call him a douche bag, I thought you liked him." Jace says and I bite the inside of my lip. If I tell him, Jace will probably try to kill Sebastian, and I want to handle him myself.

"He rubs me the wrong way, and no, I can't stand him." I say, just as Sebastian comes walking into the room, "bro, do you have Advil?" He says to Jace, not noticing me. His attention quickly changes to me, "you're brave to still here." Sebastian says to me, narrowing his eyes and coming towards me. I wish he would try me, I will put him in the ground.

"Really? You drank the beer you were attempting to get me to drink. I hate to say it, but you drank your own drugs." I snap back, going to my feet, and Sebastian face falls, "you tried to drug her?" Jace yells at Sebastian, just as Magnus comes running down the stairs, hand in hand with Alec. Sebastian looks around nervously, noticing Simon and Isabelle.

"Sebastian." Isabelle says, crossing her arms, "did you try to drug Clary?" Isabelle asks, narrowing her eyes.

"Yes, but—," Jace doesn't give him the chance to finish, running towards Sebastian, taking him to the ground before I can even blink. We rush towards the boys; my reasoning different than anybody else's. If anybody is going to beat up Sebastian, it's going to be me. Alec, Magnus, and Simon work together to pull Jace and Sebastian apart, and I walk over to him, punching him square in the jaw. Sebastian clutches his face, "you bitch, you probably broke my nose!" He snaps at me, lunging towards me, but Alec is holding him back.

"Poor you, maybe now you will learn not to put date rape drugs in unsuspecting girls drinks." I growl, turning away from him, and Jace beckons me over to him. I walk over to him as Alec reprimands Sebastian, and Jace puts his arm lightly around my shoulders, "I'm so sorry." He whispers and I clench my fist, for the first time since I've met Jace, allowing him to keep his arm around me.

"Alec, you've known me for three years, and you've known this girl for like, three days. Come on!" Sebastian demands and I sigh. Alec better not flip sides or I'll never trust him again.

"Sebastian, either you leave willingly, or I will drag out of this house." Jace growls, I feel his arm tense around my shoulders.

"Get out!" Alec roars at him, and Sebastian nods, letting out a sigh of defeat, exiting the house. Jace takes his arm off of me, making a beeline to Alec. Isabelle comes running to me, and out of the corner of my eyes, I see Jace leading Alec to the side, whispering


	7. BEING ETHICAL

**TATTOOED CHAPTER 7**

 _ **"Mental pain is less dramatic than physical pain, but it is more common and also more hard to bear. The frequent attempt to conceal mental pain increases the burden: it is easier to say "My tooth is aching" than to say "My heart is broken."**_

― _**C.S. Lewis**_

 **SUNDAY**

 **JACE'S POV**

It's been two days since the party, and only one day since I fought back against my dad, as well as my attempted murder on Sebastian. For the past few days, I've been staying with the Lightwoods, I am afraid to face my dad when I return home.

"We could go to child protection services." Isabelle offers; she is very aware of my worry about returning home, and for the past day, Alec and her have been doing their best to come up with better options for me.

"My mom isn't brave enough to stand up to mu dad, she excuses his actions for him already. That would make it Stephan's word against mine. I don't exactly have any super visible marks, other than some scars, but I don't have proof." I font think I could ever win against Stephan in a courtroom.

"We could lie, say we saw him hit you. Please Jace, we need to get you away from him." Isabelle says and Alec lets out a sigh, flopping back against the couch, "that's a stupid idea." He tells Isabelle, crossing his arms. The room falls into a heavy silence, and we glance around at each other.

"So..." Alec trails off, "what do we think of Clary?" He asks us and I glance at Isabelle, who is already looking at me. Alec is definitely trying to get information for us out of Isabelle without actually letting her know what is going on. He's smart.

"I mean, she's kinda quiet and shy, but she's smart, and pretty, and actually really smart. And a total badass." Isabelle says and I huff, "secretive is putting it lightly." I mumble under my breath, earning me a sideways glance from both of my best friends.

 **MONDAY**

 **CLARY'S POV**

I enter school, walking quietly through the hallways, trying to ignore everyone. If I can get through my day today without any bullshit, I may actually be the happiest person alive. I do need to have a talk with Jace though, so I don't truly know if I will be able to ignore the drama.

"Clary!" Isabelle greets me as I enter class, sitting down in a chair next to her, "how are you feeling?" She asks me, smiling softly and I shrug, "I'm all good, I'm tough." I tell her.

"I'm glad," she pauses before saying, "do you have work tonight?" She asks and I nod, "ugh, ok. The boys' have football tonight, and we were going to go out to dinner afterwards, but we will just come to Taki's so we can see you." Se tells me and I nod, "I'll be there 'til 11." She smiles.

"Ok."

Lunchtime rolls around and we all sit down at a picnic table. Sebastian is nowhere to be seen, maybe Jace put him in the hospital and didn't tell me, "Clary?" Magnus says and my head snaps up, "um, yeah?" I give him a weary smile.

"Why do you cover up your tattoos?" He asks me and I shrug, "I got them done for me, not anybody else, so nobody else needs to see them." I lie. I keep them covered so I don't get murdered. Magnus nods, going back to eating and I look at Jace from across the table. I catch his eyes, and he raises his brow, _"We need to talk."_ I attempt to communicate to him, and he purses his lips, _"don't do that."_ I sigh, nodding at him, walking off, hopping he will get the message, and be smart enough to follow.

I wait for him at our usual meeting spot and after about ten minutes, Jace finally strolls up to me.

"What's up?" He asks, "you took your time." I roll my eyes and he huffs, "I didn't want our overly smart friends to get suspicious." He pauses, waiting for me to continue.

"I want to kidnap Sebastian." I say and Jace gives me a look, "Clary, you can't just kidnap people because you want too." Jace tells me.

"Would it make you feel better if I told you that he wasn't exactly human?" I question and he narrows his eyes at me.

"What are you going on about? He may be a super douche bag, but that doesn't mean he is a super human." Jace tries to convince me, but I just sigh in response, "I get it, he's your friend and I am practically a stranger, but I think he's the one who attacked you, or at least he has some information on what the hell is going on." I say, trying to convince him, but he just rolls his eyes at me. Damn it.

"Do you have any evidence? We cant just go kidnapping people without evidence." He tells me and I cross my arms defensively.

"When I first shook his hand, his pulse was off, like he was nervous or afraid," Jace cuts in, "maybe he just thought you were pretty. That's not very surprising." I just roll my eyes at him.

"Anyways, you should have seen his face when your mark activated at lunch, and he tried to drug me. That's enough evidence for me. And if anything, me kidnapping him would just be payback for what he did to me." I continue to try to convince him, and he purses his lips at me. He is probably trying to figure out a way to defend his friend.

"He's not my friend right now. I am disgusted with what he tried to do with you, and I can't imagine how many other girls that piece of shit has done that too." Jace tells me, "if you want to kidnap him, go ahead, I won't help, but I will definitely make sure you don't get caught." He tells me and I nod, "thank you." With that, I brush past him, walking back down to the group, "where were you?" Isabelle asks and I sit back down.

"Making out with Jace behind a dumpster, where else would I be?" I say smarmily, "I just went off for a walk, I needed to clear my head." I say and they nod; after a few minutes, Jace returns.

"Sorry, Kaelie waned to talk." He says, sitting down next to me at the table, and Alec rolls his eyes, "mhm. Whatever."

I arrive at work right after school and I work the slow night for a while, until ten o'clock rolls around and every football player and their brother rolls into the restaurant.

"This is a joke, right?" Kaelie asks me, coming up behind the diner bar and I groan, "this better be." I storm off, stomping over to Jace, crossing my arms, blocking his path.

"What the fuck Jace?" I snap and he signs.

"I'm sorry, Sebastian overheard us talking and he decided to invite the entire football team to come along." Jace explains and I let out a grunt of annoyance, "of course it was Sebastian. Where is he?" I question, going to trudge past Jace, but he catches my arm, making me bite my lip in anger.

"Are we really going to do this again?" I snarl and he purses his lips, "do not go to Sebastian. I want him here. There is so many people here, I doubt anyone would notice if he just happened to go missing."

"Oh, so you are going to help me?" I say, but Jace just responds with a shrug, "I am doing what I promised you, don't get caught.

He says with a smirk, and I wink, "wouldn't dream of it."


	8. WHAT HAPPENS IN THE BREAK ROOM

**TATTOOED CHAPTER 8**

 **CLARY'S POV**

 **MONDAY**

I figured I would work through the rest of my shift, and than I would attempt to pull Sebastian away from his group.

"Aye new girl!" I get called by one of Sebastian's friends over to their table. I may be a waitress, but I am not their call girl. I make my way to their table, ready to listen to what they have to say, but my watch alarm that signals my shift is over sounds off.

"Can you get me a burger, babe?" He asks me, but I just roll mu eyes, going to untie my apron, "sorry, I am off my shit." I tell him, and a look of annoyance crosses his face. The guys go to complain, bur I don't care enough to stick around.

I walk to the backroom, clocking out, turning in my apron, and grabbing my phone. I change into jeans and a t-shirt, and head back into the diner, where two new waiters have entered. I guess this mass party of teenage boys is their problem now. I notice Sebastian hanging off by the side, and I take this as an opportunity to get to him. I walk over to him from the side, "hey."

He turns his attention to me, pursing his lips and crossing his arms. I guess he isn't very excited to see me. If I were him, I wouldn't be either, I am planning on killing him, "oh, so you want to be friends now?" He says. Usually I would lose my temper on him for being such a dickhead, but for now I'll let it slide.

"Can we talk please?" I ask him, batting my eyelashes at him, turning on my charm.

"We are talking right now." He says with an attitude, and I fight the urge to roll my eyes, "In private, please? We can go to the back room." I say and Sebastian pounders for a moment, before nodding, "sure."

Sebastian allows for me to lead him to the backroom, where the party is nonexistent. I allow him to walk in first, and I pull the door shut behind me, quietly locking the door.

"What did you want to talk about?" He asks me and I reach behind me, grabbing a glass in my hand.

"Just about the whole, 'you tried to drug me but I was smart and switched our drink.'" I say, and he sighs, "If you want an apology, you aren't going to get one." He says and I smirk.

"I don't want an apology." I pause, gripping the glass as hard as I can without breaking it, "I want payback." I feel my eyes darken with anger, and I swing the glass, smashing it on his face, causing Sebastian to drop to a knee on the ground, the side of his face bleeding and the glass shattering in my hand. He goes to stand up, but I don't give him the opportunity. I swing my leg, kicking him in the head, hitting him square in the temple, which knocks him out cold. "Finally, you shut up." I mumble to myself.

I grab some duck tape, taping his hands, legs, and arms down, so he can't do anything stupid. I go to lift him up onto the chair, but I quickly realize that even with my strength rune, I will not be able to lift him up. I let out a loud groan, I really didn't want to ask Jace for help and deal with his judgment. I cave in, swallowing my pride and walking out of the backroom, hunting for Jace. I really don't like that I'm leaving him knocked out and unattended.

I run into Jace, literally run into him and we both stumble. His football friend's chuckle and I pull lightly at his sleeve, trying to bring his attention away from his meathead friends and down to me, who looks like a wild animal.

"I need your help." I say, my eyes pleading and he nods, "whose your friend, Jace?" One guy asks him, his eyes scanning me like I'm pray.

"She is none of your concern." Jace says, narrowing his eyes at the boys, "come on." He grabs me by the arm, pulling me away from the clump of people so we can talk without raising any red flags.

"What's up?" He asks me and I give him a small smile, trying to look as innocent as possible.

"Sebastian is quite to heavy, and I can't lift him. I need you to help me out." I say and a look of surprise passes Jace face, and he raises his eyebrows at me.

"You killed him?" He asks me and I roll my eyes, "no, I knocked him out and he dead weighted, so I can't lift him up. Because trust me, he's gonna be really pissed off when he gets up." I say and Jace lets out a heavy breath, "ok, yeah, where is he?" I lead Jace down to the back room, where Sebastian is knocked out face down on the floor; Jace lets out one loud laugh, "AHA, this is priceless."

"I need to get him in the chair so I can tape him up in it." I say and Jace nods, scooping him up like nothing, his muscles tensing up under his shirt, and he drops Sebastian roughly into the chair.

"Thank you." I say to Jace, wrapping Sebastian in duck tape, trying to make it as difficult as possible to move. I notice out of the corner of my eye, Jace standing in the corner of the room, watching me.

"You should probably leave, I promise you aren't going to want to see this side of me." I warn Jace, who continues to stare.

"You need backup, and I want to get answers just as bad as you." He says, just as Sebastian wakes up with a groan, "I knew there was a reason why I fucking hated you." Sebastian snarls at me and I smile, "you know, I'm starting to think that I was put on this planet to make your life a living hell." I say back, walking up to him, and pulling my arm sleeve up, showing him my runes, "do you know what these are?" I question and he laughs, "a cheap tattoo job? A act of defiance because you have daddy issues?" Sebastian growls, if I could kill him right now, I would. Jace comes up next to me, whispering, "easy."

"Sorry, did I hurt your feelings?" Sebastian responds with a wicked smirk on his face, "answer the damn question." Jace says, keeping his hand on the back of my arm.

"You went through all this trouble just for some information on runes? You truly are an idiot. You have been blessed by an angel, an angel of death." Sebastian says and I roll my eyes, "who runed us?" I question and Sebastian smirks.

"Why would I know that?' Sebastian snaps back and I grit my teeth dangerously, lunging out of Jace's arm length, bunching my hands in Sebastian's shirt. I tilt his chair back, narrowing my eyes at him.

"Who runed us?" I ask again; and he laughs, "you're going to die," runes flash through Sebastian's shirt, making me jump off of him, stumbling backwards, and his chair breaks from under his weight, and he wiggles up to his feet, "Valentine is coming, and either you will follow him, or he will kill you all." I roll my eyes, going to lunge at him again, but Jace grabs me by the arm, "don't make a empty theat." I sneer, just as the lights flicker off, and Jace gets pulled away from me, and Sebastian begins laughing. This isn't creepy at all. There is a loud crash behind me, and I whip out my steele, lighting up my Nynx rune so I can see in the dark.

I see a tall, man-like figure towering over a body on the floor. Jace? The figure pulls a small knife out of Jace, and I lunge at the strange man. I don't have much fighting experience, but I'm strong. I can figure this out.

The figure's knife goes through my hand, making me bike back a scream, and he throws me to the ground. The large figure moved to Sebastian, opening up a hole In the wall. He pulls Sebastian and himself through the hole as I stare in awe. And than it is gone.

I rush to a light switch, dripping blood as I go, and I fumble with my steele. I activate my healing rune, watching my hand quickly heal up. I lurch over to Jace, putting my hands over his shoulder, trying to keep pressure on it.

"I told you, you should have left." I say and he grunts, "now isn't a great time for an 'I told you so' moment." He groans out and I huff, tearing up the bottom of my shirt, tying them around his arm wound, cutting of the circulation.

"I'll get Alec." I tell him and Jace nods, gritting his teeth, "Ok."


	9. DID THE KNIFE CUT DEEP ENOUGH?

TATTOOED CHAPTER 9

CLARY'S POV

MONDAY

I sneak out of the backroom undetected, keeping my hands crossed over my midsection, hunting around the small diner, where people have already began to clear out. I find Alec eventually, even though it feels like forever. I hate to admit it, but I'm worried about Jace.

"Clary?" He asks, noticing the bloodspots on my jeans, and that my hands are soaked in blood. It's a mix of both Jace and I's.

"I need your help." I stammer out and Alec nods. He grabs me by the hand, pulling me as we rush through the thinning crowd of people.

"Why are you covered in blood?" He whispers to me, tugging me to stop. I try to blow past him, attempting to move forward, dragging Alec behind me. I guess he hasn't been runed. Yet. We need to get to Jace.

"Clary." He says sternly, jerking backwards, making me stop. He's pretty strong for an average mundane.

"Jace and I got attacked. He needs help." I say and Alec's face falls, "take me." He orders me; I have been trying to bring him there this whole time. I nod quietly, bring him to the backroom, kicking the door open, and shutting it quietly once we both are inside.

JACE'S POV

My entire body is screaming, my shoulder is throbbing, blood is slowly leaking from my wound, creating a puddle on the floor, and m fingers are numb. Why isn't my healing rune working?

Clary and Alec come stampeding into the room, Alec doping down next to me, "what the hell happened?" He looks me over once, and an emotion I don't recognize crosses his face, and he jumps to his feet. Alec walks dangerously over to Clary, getting in her face. I hope Clary doesn't hurt him, "what did you do to him?" He yells at Clary, and she instantly defends herself, shoving Alec hard in the chest, getting him out of her face, "I didn't do anything! He was stabbed by a guy that came here for Sebastian!" Why are they arguing right now? I am currently bleeding to death on the floor.

"How is Sebastian a part of this?" Alec yells back at her, throwing his hands up, and Clary's eyes darken with anger. I try to work my way up to my knees, grunting with every small movement.

"We kidnapped him."

"You kidnapped Sebastian? What the hell guys!" Alec says, the two of them bicker, and I struggle to push myself up to my feet, feeling dizzy. I stumble, banging into the bench behind me; and the two seem to snap back into reality.

"We need to get you back to your house. Something is making your body reject the healing rune. Does one of you have a car?" Clary asks, and Alec and I exchange looks, "we have motorcycles." We say at once.

"Come on." Alec puts his hand around my waist, and Clary leads us out the backdoor to the parking lot, trying to go unnoticed.

"I'm not going to be able to drive, and there is no way I can fit on a bike with you." I admit to Alec, and he turns to Clary, "can you drive a motorcycle?" He asks Clary, who purses her lips.

"I should be able to figure it out." Clary says and I grimace, "you better. I'm going to die. We need," I wince as a shooting pain makes it's way through my arm up the rest of my body, "to get back to my house, I have medical supplies." You learn to get prepared when your dad beats the shit out of you nightly. I hunch forward, and Alec struggles to hold me. I feel my body to begin to fatigue due to blood loss.

"I'll follow you." Clary says to Alec, replacing his spot on my side, "come on." Alec hustles back to his bike, and Clary leads me to mine.

"How do I do this?" Clary asks me as we climb onto the bike. I explain to her a few key things, wincing every time I move to fast.

"How do you not fall off?" She asks me nervously, and I take my free hand, wrapping it tightly around her waist, pulling myself forward on the seat so I am flush against her. If I wasn't dying by the second, I would actually be enjoying this.

CLARY'S POV

"Drive." Jace says in my ear, flinching as I floor it forward after Alec. I grit my teeth, I don't like how Jace is so close to me, but this is the only way I can get him back to his house.

"Who was that?" Jace asks in my ear, I feel him tensing up behind me. I speed after Alec, following him into the neighborhood.

"I don't know. But we will find out." I tell him, and Alec pulls up to a stop, I ride up next to him , stopping a little to hard, making Jace grunt out in pain.

"We need to walk the bikes up so we don't wake Stephan.

Jace grunts, his breath on my neck, making goose bumps rise across my entire body. Alec nods, "so how are we sneaking in, you care to hurt to climb onto the roof like you usually do, so how do you say we get in?" Alec says and I cut in, "I can glamour Jace and I. Alec, you'll need to distract Jace's dad, and we will sneak upstairs, open the window, and you can sneak in." I say.

"What's a glamour?" Jace asks, hunching forward, using me to hold himself upwards, and I smile. I whip out my steele, wiping it over my glamour rune, making myself invisible.

"Well shit." Alec says, his jaw dropping, but Jace just tilts his head, confused.

"I'm invisible, but since you are runed, you can still see me." I explain, and Jace nods, not seeming convinced, but he is going to have to trust me.

"Ok." He trails off, stumbling, and I grab him by the shirt, deglamorizing myself, and pulling Jace back to stabilize him, "Get Stephan to open the door." I say and he nods, wheeling the bike into the driveway, and I park Jace's out of sight, pulling him lightly by the shirt behind me.

"Come here." I pull him to me, and I pull up his shirt, "uh," he says, but I shoot him a look, marking the other side of his 'v' and he winces. He looks like he is about to pass out, he has lost so much blood. I need to get him inside. I activate my glamour, and his as well, pulling him will me. Alec is standing in the doorway, "uh, is Jace here?" Alec asks as we slip through the doorway undetected.

"No, and if you see him, tell him he is in so much trouble. It's past midnight and he should be home by now." I hear Stephan's voice echo through the house and I hear Alec huff, "thank you Mr. Herondale. Goodnight,

I glance over my shoulder, watching Alec leave the doorway, and I drag Jace up the stairs.

"Ouch." He whines as we reach his bedroom, and I push him onto his bed, making him yelp. I remove both of our glamour's, opening the window, seeing Alec on the roof, and he jumps inside, shutting the window behind him.

"Ok." I say, bending over Jace, untying the strips of shirt around his arm, and his blood begins to spill again, "get towels, be quiet." I order Alec, as Jace groans, "shh." I hush, touching the side of his face.

"There is something in your wound that wont allow for me to close it." I say, taking a deep breath, mentally preparing myself, and I stick my fingers into his wound, digging for a piece of metal, ad I try to keep myself from gagging. This is where Jace passes out, going limp under me, but still keeping a pulse. Alec races into the room, just as I dig the metal out.

"Put weight on his wound." I tell Alec, switching positions with him and swiping over Jace's healing wounds. His wounds instantly start healing, and Alec jumps back, "he needs time for his body to reproduce blood and we need to keep an eye on him." I say and Alec nods, "ok. I'll change out his sheets, and throw these out, watch him." Alec says, just as there is a loud bang on the window, "What the fuck?" Isabelle yells. OH SHIT.


	10. THE PAINFUL TRUTH

**TATTOOED CHAPTER 10**

 **CLARY'S POV**

 **TUESDAY**

I open the window, letting Isabelle in the room, and hushing her, throwing my hand over her mouth, "I will explain to you everything, but I need you to be quiet. Jace's life is on the line." I say in a whisper, looking at the alarmed look on Isabelle's face as she eyes unconscious Jace. Alec walks into the room, stopping dead in his tracks, "shit."

"Alec?" She says, and I bring her attention back to me, "I'm going to explain everything, you can ask questions when I'm done. This may sound crazy, but I need you to believe me." I say and she nods.

I explain everything, and when I say everything, I mean everything that I know, which isn't a lot, "so you and my best friend have super powers, and my brother knew about it, but didn't tell me? And the two of you kidnapped Sebastian, resulting in Jace getting stabbed by someone who was trying to save Sebastian?" She asks me and I nod, "well that is insane." She tells me and I laugh bitterly under my breath, "you're telling me." I whisper. It is almost four in the morning and Alec and Izzy are both beyond tired. At least I have a stamina rune to keep me awake.

"Alec, Isabelle, you guys should go home. I have runed to keep me awake, go get some sleep." I say and Alec purses his lips, glancing over at Jace, who is still knocked out on his bed. Isabelle nods, linking arms with Alec, who sill looks reluctant, "come on brother, you standing over him won't make him get any better." Isabelle says, and Alec huffs, nodding, walking over to the window, sliding it open, "take care of him." he tells me, "I will." Isabelle and Alec heading out the window, climbing off onto the roof, and sliding the window back shut.

I walk over to Jace, sitting down on his bed next to him. I place my hand on his now closed gash on his shoulder, running my fingers over it where his new scar has formed. I can't help it as my eyes wonder over the rest of his arm, which is covered in small scars and cuts, "what have you gone through?" I mumble under my breath, and Jace's eyes fly open. He shoots upwards, pure terror lacing his expression, and he lunges towards me. He grabs me tight in his grip, flipping me and pinning me underneath his weight, as he places pressure on my throat. I gasp, fighting underneath him. I don't think that even on a good day I could take him. Realization strikes his face and he pulls away from me so fast, he almost falls off the bed. I cough, hunching over, trying to breathe again, feeling a burning feeling in my throat and chest.

"Clary." He says quietly, grabbing me lightly by the arm, and I thrash away out of his grip.

"I'm so sorry, I thought you were..." he trails off, and I wave him off, "it's ok." I say, my voice hoarse. I stand up from his bed, and he follows my lead as I look him up and down, "obviously you feel better." I say and he reaches towards me, "come here." He says and I pause, pursing my lips. My mind is telling me to stay still, but my body betrays me as I walk towards him slowly. He sighs, closing the distance between us, pulling me into a tight hug. I freeze, mulling this over. Do I like this or not? I gently wrap my arms around him.

"Thank you for saving my life." He says and I chuckle nervously, "I didn't have any other choice, plus, I've grown a small liking to you." I say, pulling out of his arms and crossing my arms over my chest, feeling very self-conscious.

"You should head home, we have class tomorrow and I'm sure you are tired." He says and I check my watch, it reads 4:30am.

"Yeah, I should go." I grab my phone off the floor, heading over to the window, "wait." He says as I go to head out the window, "will you be safe? You can stay over if you think there is a chance that something might happen." He asks and I nod, "you should know the answer to that by now." And with that, I jump out the window, sliding down the roof, but I'm not going home. I am going to the diner to clean up the crime scene we created in the backroom.

 **JACE'S POV**

I ended up not going back to bed. I figured I'd need to be up in an hour anyway, so there wasn't really a point. I also couldn't sleep. I almost died today, at the hands of Sebastian, who was supposed to be my friend.

I get up from my bed, letting out a groan, and I get dressed, feeling extremely stiff. I grab my few things, my work out clothes, and I make my way over to my window. I climb through, expecting pain, but I am pleasantly surprised as I move freely, shutting my window. I slide down the roof, landing lightly on the ground, feeling no pain. I actually feel quite good. I walk to m bike, leading it down the road a little ways away from my bed.

I hop on, speeding down the road, off towards Taki's; I need to get my bagel and coffee. In the back of my mind, I know that part of the reason I am going to Taki's is so I can see a particularly short and angry red head.

I arrive at the diner, parking the bike and entering the restaurant, seeing a guy who I haven't met before, "hey." He says to me as I walk over to the counter, "hey, is Clary here?" I'm mildly worried that something happened to her. He glances over his shoulder, "um, I'm new here, is that the tall blond or the cute red head?" he questions, "cute redhead." I say and he nods, "yeah, she's in the backroom, you can go back and see her if you want." He says and I nod, extending my hand to him, "I'm Jace." The guy returns my handshake, "I'm Jordan." He says and I nod, "good to meet you." I walk past the counter, towards the backroom. I enter, seeing Clary asleep on the floor, hunched against the wall. I chuckle, walking over to her, crouching down on my knees and shaking her lightly.

"Clary, wake up." I say and she jolts upwards, she panics quickly, sliding away from me, "oh, uh, hey." She pulls her knees up to her chest, "what are you doing here?" She asks and I smile, "I came too get my coffee, it is almost six in the morning. Why are you sleeping on the job?" I tease her and she sighs.

"I don't actually work today, I came to clean up last nights mess." She says, and I glance around the room. She did a good job, there is not a single stain of blood.

"Come on." I offer her my hand, helping her up to her feet, "let's get out of here and get some food." I say and she tilts her head at me, "we are already at a diner, why do we need to go somewhere else?" She asks and I roll my eyes.

"Just come on. We need to talk." I tell her and she nods, caving, "fine." I wave for her to follow me out of the restaurant, waving goodbye to Jordan.

"Who's that?" Clary asks me, as we exit the restaurant, shivering a bit. The weather has been getting colder by the day.

"Jordan, he think's your cute." I tease Clary, who just rolls her eyes, "he looks like the type of guy that would have sex with a tree." She says, making me chuckle, as we reach my bike.

"Don't worry, I'll drive this time." I say, remembering last night, and Clary cracks a smile. I climb on, patting the back of my bike, but she is hesitant to touch me, "Clary, you dug your fingers inside of me last night, it can't get much worst than that. I hate to break it to you, but you are going to have to touch me." She huffs, gingerly wrapping her arms around my waist, and pulling herself against me.

 **CLARY'S POV**

My inner teenage girl is coming out right now, and I don't like it. I am focused on the fact that I can feel Jace's abdomen muscles through his t-shirt, and not the fact that we are speeding down the highway at seventy miles an hour.

"You ok?" He asks me, bringing me back to earth, causing me to blush.

"Yeah, I'm all good." I yell over the wind to him, my hands knotting in the front of his shirt. I shut my eyes, enjoying the ride to the café.

"Clary." Jace says, bringing me to open my eyes, "yeah?"

"We are here." He says and I nod, pulling my hands away from him, and I struggle to pull myself away from him, moving off of his bike. He follows me, directing me to the small restaurant. The small café is dimly lit, and soft classical music is playing in the background. We reach the counter, ordering a few things to eat. Jace beats me to paying, telling me its part of his thank you from last night, and asks me to find a table. I find a small booth, and Jace comes over, carrying our coffee and food.

"How are you feeling after last night?" I ask him, picking at my muffin.

"It made me realize that even with my new found abilities, I am not invincible, and how dangerous this life really is." He tells me and I nod, giving him a little smile, "I mean, you did almost die." He smiles, glancing down at my hand, "you healed up." He says and I shrug, "it was just a scratch." I lie and Jace scoffs at me, "Clary, a knife went through your hand." Jace points out and I look down at my knees, "I am all good." I respond and Jace nods slowly.

We take a few minutes of silence to eat and drink some coffee before Jace begins talking again, "I think we should stay away from Sebastian for a little while, his friend is obviously super dangerous, and until we figure out what is going on, it'll probably be safest for us to just stay far away." Jace says and I shrug, "I don't think he has much more information to tell, plus, I wasn't planning on going within ten feet of that creep ever again." That is a big fat lie.

"Ok." Jace trails off, "do you not have a car?" He asks me and I shake my head, "no, we have one car and my mom takes it to her job in the city, I usually take the subway or walk wherever I need to go." I explain and Jace tilts his head at me, "why haven't you mentioned anything to me? I would come give you rides and take you home from school." Jace says, giving me a pointed look, but I just shrug, "I don't like asking for help." I mumble and Jace rolls his eyes at me, a stupid smirk playing on his lips.

"Clary, you saved my life, I think I can manage to give you a ride." He tells me, kicking my shin lightly under the table, "I owe you." He says and I smile lightly at him, "ok."

We finish eating around 6, and Jace brings me to the school with him. We sit together on the bleachers, looking down on the damp football field, when Jace cracks his knuckles, looking over at me.

"Do you want to learn how to fight?" He asks out of nowhere.

"I know how to fight." I point out and he puts his hands up in defense.

"You couldn't get me off of you this morning, and you got stabbed trying to defend yourself against the old dude at the diner." He fires back at me, "oh, so you're so good?" I say.

"I know a thing or two." He says, standing up, waving for me to follow him as he makes his way down to the field, "I have, quote on quote, superpowers." I tease Jace, repeating Isabelle's words, and Jace lunges at me, taking me down to the wet grass, pinning my hands on underneath him, "sure, you're fast, and I know your strong, but what happens when someone like me, who matches all of your abilities, but just happens to be twice your size decides they don't like you. Can you defend yourself?" Jace asks me, and I let out a grunt of defeat.

"I guess not."


	11. DON'T PANIC

**TATTOOED CHAPTER 11**

 **CLARY'S POV**

 **TUESDAY**

I made it through the first couple periods of school, and even through lunch without a single issue. Well, that was until I walked down the hallway at the wrong time, and happened to see Sebastian doing something he probably shouldn't be doing. He slips out of the janitors closet with a somewhat suspicious look about him, and I purse my lips. I'm about to do something that is going to really piss off Jace.

"What are you doing?" I sneer at him, and he crosses his arms, "what's it to you?" He responds, and I give him a sickening smile.

"What's in the closet?" I ask and he tilts his head at me, "my knife collection. Why don't you go get your boyfriend, and you two can get stabbed another time?" He says and I roll my eyes, "he's not my boyfriend. What is in the closet?" I ask again and he smiles at me, "go ahead Clary." He says, stepping out of my way, and I shrug. Opening the door, walking inside. The sight in front of me is enough to make me throw up.

Drooped on the floor, crumpled up in a ball is a body, but there is a big problem with the body. It's missing large chunks of skin, and looks exactly like Sebastian. What is this 'thing' standing before me?

"Who are you?" I question, backing away from the figure in front of me.

"My name is Jonathan." He purrs, coming closer to me, causing me to stumble backwards. I may be afraid of Jace, but I am truly terrified of Jonathan.

"You killed Sebastian." I feel like I am seeing double.

"He's been dead for weeks. In fact, you have never even met Sebastian, you've only ever known me." He says, coming towards me, but I duck away from him, moving to the other side of the small closet.

"What do you want with us? You killed Sebastian, tried to seduce me, how do you look like Sebastian?" I say and Jonathan smiles, reaching down at Sebastian's body. He pulls at some skin on Sebastian's arm, ripping it from his body, and eating it. My body goes ridged and bile rises in my throat as I tear my eyes away from him.

"You were marked my an angel, you have angel blood in your veins. I was attacked by a demon; I have different powers than you. I can shape shift." He says, reaching out and grabbing me by the arm, burning my skin, and he turns into me. I gasp, jumping away from him, ripping my arm out of Jonathan's grasp. The minute I pull away from him, he no longer looks like me.

"What do you want with me?" I snap, my voice quivering, trying to remain brave, but not succeeding.

"You, dear Clarissa," how does he know my real name, "are my sister." My breath catches in my throat, and I feel like I am going to pass out. This has to be some sick joke.

 **JACE'S POV**

After school, I wait for Clary by my bike, I have practice in an hour, which is plenty of time to hold up my promise to Clary, and take her home.

Clary comes into view, looking queasy, and I furrow my brows. I walk over towards her briskly. "What's wrong?" I ask and she blinks a few times, looking up at me confused, "huh?"

"What's wrong?" I ask her again, putting my hand on her shoulder, and she forces a smile onto her face, shrugging me off of her.

"Nothing." I roll my eyes at her obvious lie, and I put my hand on her arm again, giving it a gentle squeeze.

"Clary, I know you're lying to me. So tell me what's wrong." I demand from her and she lets out a shaky sigh, "I just had a rough run in with Sebastian." She tells me and I raise my brows at her. I wish I could tell if she was lying right now. I need her to teach me how to do the pulse thing she mentioned.

"What did he say?' I ask her, trying to keep my voice calm. He's really getting under my skin right now.

"Mine too," she mumbles under her breath, and I huff. I forgot that she can hear my thoughts. And when I do remember, it really pisses me off.

"Nothing super, he just got under my skin a little, and he upset me a bit." She tells me and I clench my fists. I am going to have to put aside what happened last night, and my agreement with Clary, and have a word with him.

"Here, let's get you home." I say, and she shakes her head, pulling back against my arm.

"No." She says a little to firmly, before changing her tone, "well, I mean, I'd like to stay, if that's ok. My mom isn't home and I'd rather not go home and be by myself." She tells me and I nod. Sebastian must have really scared her, "I don't mind taking you home afterwards, plus, I believe Isabelle is staying as well so you won't be alone." I tell her and she nods.

We meet up with Alec, Isabelle, and Isabelle's rat faced boyfriend, Simon by the stadium, and everyone seems pretty surprised to see Clary.

"Welcome," Simon says to Clary as we sit down on the bleachers, and I drop down next to Clary.

"I convinced her to stay." I cover for Clary, and Alec nods.

We leave the girls (and Simon), heading down to the locker room, getting ready before anyone else gets to the locker room.

"Jace!" Coach calls me over, and I jog over to him, "listen, I'm not accusing you of anything, but I have just noticed some changes in you. Are you on steroids?" He asks me and my jaw goes slack, "um, no. You can drug test me is you want." I say and coach nods, "than what is going on with you?" He asks me, just as Alec comes jogging by us.

"He has a new girl in his life." Alec teases as coach claps me on the shoulder, "atta kid, alright, go warm up." He tells me as kids come flooding out onto the field. We begin stretching and warming up in out own ways, until coach bellows out, bringing all of our attention to him.

"Where is Verlac?" Coach yells out; just hearing Sebastian's name makes my blood boil. It would be smart of him not to come to practice today. I snarl as I see him come running out onto the field.

"Here coach." Sebastian yells, attempting to run past me, but I can't help but snap. I lunge towards him, going straight towards his neck.

I bring him to the ground, swinging at his head, and he flips us so he is on top, but only for a moment. I feel my angelic rune activate, but I don't really care. I feel anger and power coarse through my veins. I am going to kill him.

 **CLARY'S POV**

I watch as Jace goes after Sebastian, and my jaw drops, "holy shit." Isabelle says, covering her mouth, and I jump to my feet. I hop over the fence, landing on the field, and running over to the boys. Getting between these two is going to be like trying to break up a fight of two pit bulls. The teammates are either watching, calling for coach, or are trying, and failing, to break up the fight between the two super powered boys.

"Jace." I yell, and he has no reaction. I fight through the crowd of boys, shoving them away, and reaching out to Jace. Jace has a look on his face that I have never seen before as he lands an uppercut on Sebastian. His eyes are dark, and I can see his runes peaking out from underneath his jersey. I reach Jace's side, grabbing his arm, and I sit back, pulling him off of Sebastian, stepping in front of him, "Jace." I say again firmly, and he tries to blow through me, but I don't let him. "Calm down." I grip his wrists in either of my hands. His eyes flicker to me as I place a hand on his chest, breathing heavily, and his eyes lighten up. He lets out a loud breath, and he tenses under my touch. Sebastian lets out a low laugh from behind me, and I whirl around to see a Sebastian with a nosebleed, "control your boyfriend, Fray." He taunts me, and I narrow my eyes at him, tightening my grip on Jace, "fuck off you prick. Watch yourself." I growl, as coach comes over to us and he looks over at me, "what are you doing on my field?" He asks me, and I just give him an innocent smile, "sorry, I was just going." I tell coach as he narrows his eyes at me. I let go of Jace's wrist, looking around at his confused teammates.

"As you were." I say, rocking nervously on my heels, before running off towards the edge of the field, hopping back over the bleacher fence. I make my way back to Simon and Isabelle, and I give them a sly smile.

"Well that was badass." Isabelle says.


	12. GIRL, YOU NEED ANGER MANAGEMENT

**TATTOOED CHAPTER 12**

 **CLARY'S POV**

 **TUESDAY**

I wait patiently with Isabelle by Jace's motorcycle; Simon already headed out, "I'm surprised you were able to calm Jace down as fast as you did. Usually, when he gets heated like that, there is no way to bring him back down." Isabelle tells me and I shrug, "I mean the reason he went after Sebastian," Jonathan, "in the first place was because I let it slip that he was annoying me." I say and Izzy corks her brow at me, "there is something special about you Clary, more than just you being part angel. Even if you don't see it, I do, and Jace definitely does." My breath catches in my throat, and I glance around, making sure that nobody was around to hear that, "Jace has always been a little bit of a hot-head. He got that from his father. It is pretty hard to get a rise out of, but once you do, it is virtually impossible to bring him back down. But you could." Isabelle says and I shrug, "I have no idea," I say, just as the two boys come walking over to us.

"Hey Isabelle, Clary," Alec greets us, while Jace looks down at his feet, not even being able to look in my eye, "come on Alec." Isabelle grabs her brother by the arm, leading the two of them off, and I look at Jace, "why'd you do that?" I ask him, smacking him on the chest, "that could have ended bad!" I tell him. Sebastian isn't Sebastian anymore, he's much more dangerous now.

"I don't know." Jace says, defeated, and I huff. I don't want to make him feel bad, I'm the one lying to him.

"Ok." I huff, "just... don't do it again. You could have gotten hurt." I say, giving Jace a pointed look, "you're the one that said that we need to stay away from him." I throw his words back at him from earlier.

"Not that I am a master with emotions or anything, but if I didn't know any better, I'd say that you care about me." He says and I smirk, I could never admit to that.

"If you die, I fail, I lose, and I don't like to lose. Plus, who will give me rides home." I punch his shoulder, "come on Blondie, lets get out of here."

I hop on the back of his bike behind him, and he speeds off towards my house, which he only knows about because he 'was drawn to me'.

I'm obviously still wary of Jace, even though he has given me more reasons to trust him than not, but I have learned that you can't trust anyone for to long. Especially with the news that came to light with Jonathan.

I don't know whether or not to believe that he is my brother. It is very possible since my father died before I was born, and Jonathan is older than me. But if Jonathan is older than me, that much mean my mom knows, unless we have different mothers, which would make this a lot les confusing. But what are the odds that we both end up in very similar situations, just on different sides of the war zone.

I get lost in my thoughts that I don't realize that we are sitting outside of my mom's shop, that sits below our apartment.

"Clary, I know I smell good, but you gotta let go." Jace tells me, and I can't help but inhale his shirt's smell.

"Mangos." I mumble under my breath and he chuckles, making me shake a little bit along with him, "what did you say?" He asks me, and I flush, oops, "you smell like mangos." I repeat, and Jace smiles, "I know, but come on Clary, you got go inside your house now." He tells me, and I huff, pulling away from Jace. I am dreading going inside because I have to act like someone haven't just had a major bomb dropped on me.

Jace continues to smile as I hop of the back of his bike, "I'll walk you inside." Jace tells me, chuckling, walking behind me. This is going to be so uncomfortable.

"What is going to be so uncomfortable?" Jace asks me and I shoot him a look over my shoulder, "stay out of my head, you creep."

"Sorry, I don't know how to control these freak powers." He tells me as we reach my front door, "well, whatever is going to be going on when I leave, I have your number so I'll text you later." He says and I roll my eyes, "no you don't." I say, entering my house, "I'll have Izzy give it to me." He says, and I go to shut the door, "Bye Jace." I say, giving him a forced smile, "bye Clary, I'll text you!" He calls to me with a wink as I shut the door in his face, and I turn, seeing my mom waiting for me.

"Who was that?" She asks me and I huff, rolling my eyes, "Jace Herondale." I tell her and she raises her brows at me.

"Is he cute?" Yes. I shrug in respond, "he is the most obnoxious person to ever walk this earth. But he is friends with my friends, so he gave me a ride home." I say and she pauses, a huge smile spreading across her face, and she claps her hands together, coming over to me, "oh Clary, I'm so glad you have been making friends. I have been so worried about you. I didn't want the hospital to ruin your future, I have always second guessed my decision of sending you there," it was the most idiotic decision of her life, but she didn't know what was wrong with me, nor what to do, "but now that you are making friends, and having a solid new start, I don't have to feel guilty." She tells me and I give her small smile, nodding. "I have a few friends." I tell her before heading up towards the stairs, "I have homework, goodnight." I make my way up the stairs to my bedroom, shutting it the door quietly, and grabbing my computer. I sit down cross-legged on my bed, and typing in two words: Angelic Runes.

 **JACE'S POV**

I don't go home, I haven't in a while. I go straight to the Lightwoods, pulling my bike into the driveway, parking. I walk into the Lightwood manor, heading to the living room, seeing Isabelle, Alec, and the youngest sibling in the bunch, Max, sitting on the large couch.

"Jace!" Max exclaims, clambering over to me and throwing his arms around me in a tight hug, and I ruffle his hair, smiling, even though my body is sour from the fight. I really need to figure my shit out, "hey buddy."

"Max!" I hear Maryse say from upstairs, "time for bed!" She calls, and he groans, "I have so much to tell you about Mumbai, I'll tell you tomorrow." He cheers, running up the stairs to appease his mother. I look over at Alec, seeing the look he is giving me, and brace myself for the lecture I am about to get.

"You're an idiot!" Alec yells at me, and I huff, dropping down on the couch with the raven-haired siblings.

"I know." I respond, "what possessed you to do that?" Isabelle asks me and I huff, dropping my head against the couch cushion.

"He did something to Clary," I swear if he put a hand on her, in any way, I would murder him, "I don't know what, and Clary is refusing to tell me, but I know he did. Seeing hi, just set me off, plus, after what happened yesterday, I couldn't hold myself back." I say, and Isabelle smirks, "sounds like someone has a crush," elbowing me lightly in the side, making me wince, making my healing rune light up, and Isabelle's brows shoot up, and she slides away.

"It's just a healing rune, it won't hurt you." I tell her and she nods, scooting back to her original spot.

"So Clary, huh?" Isabelle says with a smile on her face, and I roll my eyes, "I can't decide if she hates me or not." I admit, she did tell me she was only helping me for the sake of her, "I mean, a blind man could see your guys' sexual tension. And God, you guys make constant bedroom eyes at each other." Isabelle tells me and I huff, crossing my arms and flopping to the side, "shut up." I mumble under my breath, and Alec rolls her eyes, "even if she hates you, what's the worst she can do? She's tiny." He asks and I sigh, giving him a look.

"Tiny and viscous." I say and he smirks, "sounds like you're afraid of her."

"Of Clary? Terrified."


	13. THE CRYSTAL STELE

**TATTOOED CHAPTER 13**

 **CLARY'S POV**

 **THURSDAY**

I wake up stiffly, groaning, and rubbing my eyes. It has bee two days since Jonathan dropped his bomb on me, and it has been weighing heavily on me. I have yet to tell Jace, or confront my mom. I contemplate not leaving my bed today, until something extremely alarming catches my eye. My window is wide open, the breeze slapping me roughly in the face, and there is a small wrapped object sitting on my windowsill.

I jump out of bed, stumbling and tripping as I race to the window. Jonathan was here; nobody else would do this. I slam the window shut, reaching for the object resting on the sill. I gasp as I unwrap it, seeing a crystal stele, with a small note attached that reads, 'it wouldn't be a fair fight if Jace didn't have one.' I let out an angry yell, ripping the tag off, and hurling it across the room, and glaring down at my, Jace's, new stele.

"Clary, you ok?" I hear my mom call to me and I huff, "just peachy, I'm getting dressed, and I'll be down in a moment!" I yell back in response. Within minutes, I get dressed, wash my face, bush my hair back into a loose ponytail, and reach towards the two steles, grabbing, and shoving them into my pocket.

I grab my phone, exiting my bedroom, and bounding down the stairs.

"Morning." I say, entering the kitchen, and skidding to a stop. Jace is also standing in my kitchen, leading up against the door frame, and my eyes dart between him and my mother, "uh, hey Jace." I tilt my head at him.

"He got here early," mom says, "and since you were taking forever to get ready, I didn't want to make him wait outside in the cold." Mom says, and I nod, "I hope he didn't annoy you to much." I shoot Jace a look, and he smirks, while my mom lets out a laugh.

"He was great." Mom says, and I reach into the fridge, grabbing an apple. I grab my backpack, ready to head out the door, but my mom calls to me, "Clarissa, have you seen my antique chair, I can't seem to find it anywhere?" I grimace at the memory of me smashing the chair on Jace. I see him smirk out of the corner of my eye.

"Uh, no mom, sorry. I'll see you tonight." I respond, nodding to Jace as we exit the house, heading through the antique store, reaching the frigid New York street.

"So, Clarissa." Jace says, and I shoot him a look as a shudder runs through me. I hate getting classed that, it reminds me of the hospital nurses. Jace frowns, adverting his eyes from mine and saying softly, "I don't think you wanted me to hear that." I huff, my shoulders sagging, "we still need to figure out how that works." Jace nods, wringing his fingers together, before saying, "you really said just peachy, and on top of that, you lied to your mom!" Jace teases me, trying to lighten the mood as we climb onto the bike.

"Let me just tell my mom that I smashed a chair on your head, but you are completely fine." I say and he laughs, before wincing. "You're stabbing me with something." He tells me, turning around to look at me, and I reach into my pocket, pulling the two stele's out, and Jace raises his brows at me, "where did you get that from?" He asks, looking down at the other steles in my hand.

"Drive, I'll explain when we get to school." I say and he nods, turning back around, and I wrap my arms around his waist. He speeds off, waving through the city traffic, probably pissing off a lot of drivers. Jace is a pretty risky driver, not that I really mind anymore.

I grip him a little more tightly than I need to as we arrive at school, and Jace screeches to halt at his parking lot. He parks, propping the bike up, and I sigh, pulling my arms off of him, and wrapping them around myself, fighting off the cold. Jace stands up, leaving me sitting, and he looks down at me.

"Explain." He motions to the two steles in my hand.

"One of them is obviously mine, but this one," I lift up the crystal one, "is for you." I put it in his hand, and he raises his brows at me, "where did you get this?" I was hoping he wouldn't ask that.

"From Jonathan," I say, and Jace raises his brow at me, "my brother." I say and Jace's expression changes to confusion.

"You have a brother?" He asks, and I purse my lips.

"I do now. Sebastian is not Sebastian. I found him dead in a closet," I shiver at the memory, staring down at my feet so I don't have to look Jace in the eye.

"The person in Sebastian's body is Jonathan. He is like us, except with demon blood, not angel blood. He shape shifts by eating," I stutter, struggling, "he, uh, eats dead Sebastian's skin to continue to look like him. He claims he is my brother. The guy you fought yesterday was Jonathan, that's why I was worried about you." I say, staring at the ground.

"Clary, look at me." He tells me, but I continue to let my eyes burn holes in he ground, "Clary," he puts is hand on my arm, and my eyes bolt up to look at him, goose-bumps rise up on my arms. I can't read his face, so I can't tell if he is upset with me or not.

"Are you mad?" I ask him quietly and he sighs, running a hand through his hair like he does when he is upset or nervous.

"Is this what was wrong a few days ago? You should have told me." He says, "I'm sorry that I put you in danger, I should have told you about what happened." I apologize, struggling to breathe.

"I don't care about that." He huffs, his tan face flushing a light pink on his cheeks, I can tell he is frustrated trying to figure out how to get his words out, "if you don't tell me how to help you," he runs a hand roughly through his hair a couple of times, "or when you don't tell me when you are in danger, or in trouble, how am I supposed to protect you?" He asks me, coming towards me, and putting his hands on each of my forearms, "Clary," his eyes are burning with emotion that's a cross between lust, passion, and worry, "I need to protect you." My eyes pour back into his and I can feel his heart beating.

"Than there is one more thing you should know." I say and he nods, "Jonathan says you need to have a stele in order for there it to be a fair fight; I don't know what fight he is talking about. He left it on my windowsill for me to get when I woke up." I say and Jace's jaw locks up, his pulse quickens, "he came into your room last night, while you were sleeping?" He asks and I nod slowly.

"Did he do anything... to you." He asks quietly, biting his lower lip, and I pause, did he?

"I would have woken up if he did." I say quietly and Jace watches me carefully. He sighs, lurching towards me, and wrapping his arms tightly around me, and pulling me into him. I don't know what to do at first, so I awkwardly pat his back, "you need to open up to me Clary." He says into my ear, and I nod, pulling away from him, "I promise, I will try." I say and he nods in response, looking down at the stele in his hand, and my eyes scan over his face, "what are you thinking?" I ask him and he pauses, "I have an idea." Jace answers and I raise my brows, "a good one?" I tease and he sighs, "yes, come on." He says, nodding towards his bike.

"Jace, class is that way." I point towards the large brick building, and he throws a smirk towards me that makes my stomach jump.

"And adventure is this way, come on." He climbs on the bike, and I pull myself up on him.

"So," Jace begins, "I have been doing some research, and by the looks of it," Jace pulls out his phone, showing me a picture of a rune, "we can use the stele to track whoever owned this before me." Jace explains and I cork my brows, "but if it belongs to Jonathan, wont it just bring us right back to the school? Which wont help at all." I point out.

"But if Jonathan is a demon, why would he need a stele?" Jace counters and I nod. Jace lifts up his shirt, making me flush at the sight of his body, and I advert my eyes. He takes the stele, highlighting his skin, burning the shape of a rune on his upper abdomen. He doesn't make a sound, and I can't help but let my eyes wander over his body. He is attractive; there is no denying that.

"So are you," he says and my eyes jump up to look at him, "huh?" I respond, "you are attractive." He tells me and my eyes open wide, my face flushes a royal shade of pink, "let me guess, you heard that?" I say and he nods, letting out a laugh, "did me calling you attractive embarrass you?" He asks me and I bite down on my lower lip, making his eyes dart directly to them, causing me to flush again, "I can call you many other things..." he trails off, tucking a strand of my hair behind me ear. This is so strange, "pretty," he winks at me, has he always been this flirty? "Hot, stunning, fit, gorgeous—," he gets cut off when he snaps his eyes shut, letting out a gasp. He remains with his eyes clamped shut for a few moments, going dead silence, before his eyes fly open, shining a brilliant gold, and he shudders. I can't help but move a couple feet away from him, and over his shoulder, I can see people staring at us as they walk into school.

"I know where we need to go." His eyes go back to normal, and he pats the seat spot behind him, "come on." He exclaims and I chuckle, hopping on behind him.


End file.
